2 minute read

Bespoke lifting solution for specialist manufacturing process

Street Crane has completed its second installation for JDR, supplying a high-specification 25-tonne double girder goliath crane at the company’s Hartlepool manufacturing facility.

JDR, the UK’s leading supplier of subsea umbilical and power cables to the offshore energy industry, selected Street to manufacture and install the 15m span crane to load 20-tonne cable bobbins into a new horizontal layup machine (HLM).

The new crane has been installed at JDR’s Hartlepool facility / Picture: Street Crane

The HLM, which is the biggest in the UK and second largest in the world, provides JDR with the technology to nearly double production capacity. It comprises 16 bobbins that store the steel tubes and cables which are woven together to make the subsea umbilicals and cables.

Chris Lindley-Smith sales director at Street Crane commented: “This was a bespoke crane designed with a strong range of additional features, including radio control and travel frequency inverter drives, which ensure the crane operates extremely smoothly and allow the operator to position themselves in the optimum location for safe control of the crane at all times.

“To protect the HLM and ensure operator and worker safety, audible and visual alarms were specified as well as a customer specified interlock system with zone limits. This system ensures the crane is limited to slow speed when it enters a specified working zone and stops a safe distance away from the HLM.

“As this is a goliath crane, floor rails have been mounted on the working floor area so the crane installation was completely independent of the building’s structural steelwork, with electrical power to the crane supplied by a spring-operated cable reeling drum mounted at the base of one of the goliath legs.”

The new crane adds to an existing 72-tonne overhead crane which was manufactured and installed by Street for reel loading and unloading around five years ago. The 11m span double girder crane operates on a 30m long freestanding gantry system.

Ian Mallett, manufacturing operations manager (UK) at JDR said: “As we regularly use a Street crane at our facility, we knew we could rely on the team to develop another high-performance crane that would enable our HLM to operate as productively as possible.

“Street’s design team developed a crane that meets the demands of our specialist manufacturing process, offering a reliable lifting solution which requires minimal maintenance and importantly, comes equipped with a range of safety features.”